happy birthday ♥SOS♥!!!

can you believe the shopping our stash blog is celebrating its first anniversary already?! nope, me neither, talk about a year just FLYING BY! but i can assure you that this is, in fact, the 52nd week in which miss carla and her merry band have been challenging us not only to be more creative papercrafters, but also to think about and USE the things we already have in fun and fabulous ways! i, for one, can absolutely ALWAYS use a bit of help with both of those, so i'm thrilled to be along for the ride!

this week's dare is quite a special one; so much so that we're going to give you TWO WEEKS to play along. i'll explain in a minute, but first i just can't wait to show you my card, so here it is:

(patterned paper: basic grey, prima, bo bunny, anna griffin; adhesive fabric paper: dcwv; felt fern stickers: prima; lily of the valley stickers: martha stewart; card stock border sticker (embossed w/cuttlebug dots): fancy pants;  leafy ribbon: may arts; deco tape: 7 gypsies; flower trim: tim holtz; scalloped muslin trim: pink paislee; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, gluedots, sewing machine)

ok, so i mentioned this is a SPECIAL week--two weeks, in fact--and here's why: this time ♥YOU♥ get to choose your own challenge, using this super-fun bingo card! just pick ANY consecutive line of 5 elements and get creating!!!

i went with the long diagonal row which starts in the lower left-hand corner, so i've got:

fabric 

(the tan bottom background "paper" and the ruffles) 

butterfly

 (check!) 

free space 

(plenty of extras!!!) 

blue 

(fussy-cut flowers and border sticker)

and 

embossing 

(admittedly, a very small amount--i ran the border sticker thru my c-bug; but also my nesties have that little embossed "edge" which sorta counts, right?!)

i used deconstructed sketch #51 as my roadmap--ok, so i totally loaded up on the embellies, but the sketch IS under there, honestly!!! :)

i've also played along with laurel seabrook's 23rd inspired by challenge, mostly by virtue of using the colors in her gorgeous inspo pic, but also i've got a few ferns and lots of leafy branches in tribute to the prints in that shot:

in terms of STASH-USAGE this might just be the best card i've done yet: i didn't cut ANY full papers (except my cardstock base), the nestie shapes were leftovers, the papers from which i cut the flowers and butterfly are ollllllllld; the lilies of the valley and felt ferns are very old--and were UNOPENED till now; so i'm pretty proud of that:

i should also mention that in honor of this special event there miiiiiiight just be some blog candy lurking about at some point--either this week or next, who can say?? which may just make it even more desirable than usual to check out my DT sisters' blogs; of course alica, carla, crystal, deena, leslie, lynn, and paige are ALWAYS fabulous sources of inspiration and creativity, so you'll definitely enjoy the trip. then c'mon by SOS and link up your own card or project! ♥♥♥